Italy Texas News

02/14/2026

Italy asked us to leave. So we're leaving.

ITXN is closing. Our dissolution plan is finalized.

We were never trying to be a formal newsroom. We built ITXN to force attention onto problems people were pretending weren't real. Transparency, accountability, and basic respect for the public.

The council meeting on Monday, February 9, 2026 settled the question. Watching the city attorney rush from the audience to confer with the Mayor as I was being removed, and watching the room treat it as business as usual, told me everything I needed to know.

Effective immediately:

1. ITXN ends operations.
2. Our website and socials are now inactive.
3. No new work will be published under the ITXN name.
4. Ownership of Italy Talk has been relinquished.

You wanted us out. Consider it done.

If Italy does not want a nonprofit transparency project with a strategic plan that benefits this community, we will not force it on you.

This mission is bigger than one town. While endings can be difficult, they make room for what comes next.

Thank you to everyone who supported us, helped uncover public records, showed up when it mattered, and kept your spine when it was unpopular.

ITXN Founding Members:
* Quentin Dean Little
* Clayton Muirhead
* Mike Muirhead
* Ron Helms

For wind-down inquiries:

Email: [email protected]

Mailing address:
Italy Texas News
PO Box 247
Italy, TX 76651

02/14/2026

Your 2026 Italy City Council candidates:

- Luin McConnell
- Quentin Little
- Robert C. Hodge Jr.
- Shelby Browning
- Vincent Fleming

Incumbent William Panther is not pursuing reelection.

02/13/2026

Seven Points Community Meltdown

Opinion by Ron Helms, ITXN
February 13, 2026

When I first walked into City Hall, I couldn't help but notice how many people they were attempting to pack into a small room. An inquiry about occupancy limits of City Hall led me down a rabbit hole I never expected.

Before the meeting began, I had a private conversation with Mayor Keith Betts and Deputy Chief Anthony Katsoulas in the Chief's office. I intended to ask about the occupancy limit, but the conversation quickly changed, and we delayed the start of the meeting trying to finish that conversation. The room fell into awkward silence as they watched the three of us exit the Chief's office.

I'm not going to recap the meeting because you can watch it yourself. The livestream is in the public Facebook group "Seven Points After Dark." If you care about what's happening in this city, watch the video and decide for yourself.

What I do want to talk about is what happened after the meeting.

After the meeting adjourned, the Chief invited me back into his office. Our conversation was direct, calm, and respectful. No screaming. No theatrics. Just two adults having a real conversation.

Shortly after while leaving City Hall, I had another conversation with the Mayor outside. I've criticized Mayor Betts publicly, and I've used strong language about how I feel the city is being managed. That doesn't mean we can't treat each other with a base level of respect.

Two things can be true. I can respect the Mayor for standing up for our Constitutional rights, but I can also say I feel certain decisions he is making are very tyrannical. One point doesn't invalidate the other.

I think this is where a select few people within the Seven Points community are letting themselves get far too worked up before understanding the bigger picture.

This is also where things took a major turn.

While I was speaking with the Mayor, two women interrupted the conversation. One was an older attendee who, in my opinion, spent much of the meeting speaking over others and being quite rude. The second woman identified herself as being with The Monitor, but I did not catch her name in the moment.

I told them plainly that I was in the middle of a conversation with the Mayor. The response I got was not "can I ask a quick question when you're done." It was entitlement and escalation.

The Mayor used the interruption as an exit ramp and walked away. Then, the yelling started.

I'm not pretending I'm everyone's favorite person. I can be blunt. I can be intense. I can be rough around the edges... but with me and all of my flaws, I have never walked up to someone who is actively speaking with another person, interjected myself into their conversation, and then yelled at them because I didn't get the response I wanted.

That's what happened last night...
.. and the same people who were yelling and interrupting were calling me "unprofessional."

I hope the irony is bleeding through your phone screen.

The woman who said she was with The Monitor picked up her camera and started capturing photos with a flash so rapid that I felt as if I was on the red carpet in Hollywood. The older woman continued to follow and antagonize me while the Chief and I tried to disengage. The Chief told her to stop. She kept coming.

Here's what matters in this incredibly ridiculous and unnecessary situation. Driving this point home is the only reason I have even bothered to highlight this specific issue.

When residents show up to ask questions, some people treat it like a threat to their social pecking order. They try to embarrass you. They try to provoke you. They try to make you regret showing up.

That is how you end up with a town where only insiders feel safe speaking, and everyone else stays quiet.

If you want Seven Points to improve, this must end.

During the meeting, I raised questions about the city's leadership structure inside the police department. The way Seven Points is operating contradicts my understanding of Chapter 22 of the Texas Local Government Code. I also understand many in the community share my concerns. I have already submitted appropriate records requests that I feel will clarify this situation thanks to my conversations with the Mayor. I will relay this information to the community as soon as the city responds.

The budget situation also needs to be resolved. Texas law requires an annual municipal budget process, including public hearings where people can attend and participate. It is also unlawful for a Texas city to pass a negative operating budget...
.. but it seems as if your city is more concerned with painting rotten wood than they are with actually solving the budget crisis.

None of this gets better if people stop showing up.

To the gentleman that spoke and made a comment about how "useless" speaking out was: please, don't stop speaking. They may not respond, even when they are permitted to by law, but I promise you it makes a difference. In my experience, the more people that sign up to speak, the more you motivate others to do the same. It creates a positive feedback loop that cannot be stopped. It only stops when you stop speaking.

If you've been thinking about attending or speaking at a council meeting, but you're worried it'll be uncomfortable, let's make this simple.

That discomfort is the point. It's how they keep the room quiet.

Show up anyway. Bring a friend. Speak on the record. Ask the boring questions. Ask the uncomfortable ones too. Record what you can. Stay calm, and stay on topic. Be the adult in the room, match their energy when necessary, and never back down in the face of tyranny.

If you ever get nervous speaking, remember this small story about me. I grew up as one of the most quiet kids in the room. Ask anyone in Italy. I kept to myself and observed like a sponge. Speaking in front of an audience always makes me nervous. It doesn't matter how many times I do it. I get a certain level of anxiety as soon as I touch the podium. I can play music in front of an audience all day, but speaking is another level for me.

If I can do it, you can do it, too.

Let's also get one more thing very clear, for the record.

I don't do what I do to make people like me. I do what I do to start conversations and highlight problems on behalf of taxpayers that may not be comfortable speaking up for themselves. I've been in their shoes and know what they are going through.

I hear the criticisms, trust me, and I absolutely appreciate everyone that took the time to shake my hand and have a mature conversation. My formal response? If you are focused on my behavior, you are missing the point.

Seven Points: if you don't want me at your council meetings, get your fu***ng budget passed. You are just months away from talking about 26-27, you're still stuck in 24-25, and all you're doing is talking about trying to spend money on "beautification" and police cars.

Get your s**t together, please, on behalf of the constituents that voted you into office. If you can't get your s**t together, resign and get your s**t out.

See you at the next meeting.

Ron Helms
President, ITXN
Italy Texas News & Transparency Foundation
A Texas Non-Profit

02/12/2026

City Attorney Finally Speaks, Law Confusion & Debates, EDC's $20,000 Monthly Budget

Opinion by Ron Helms
February 11, 2026

The city provided us with the council meeting audio today. Facebook apparently doesn't allow uploading MP3 files, so I had to make a video out of it. Enjoy the relevant visuals.

If you've already watched the other videos, skip to 57:00 where I get removed and the meeting continues.

The city attorney makes a lot of interesting statements in this meeting. I would've challenged a lot of what she said because, quite frankly, she is just wrong on a lot of her points, and I can prove it.

Unfortunately, they removed me, so I couldn't do that... but go back to the HD video and watch the Mayor's face as the attorney is advising him while Italy PD is forcing me out under threat of arrest. I wonder what they were talking about... but, I digress.

The attorney was, however, completely correct about executive session line items... Which begs the question... Why did City Administrator Keith Whitfield call a citizen to advise them about the upcoming contents of an executive session?

I was under the impression those discussions are incredibly protected. Not only did he reveal contents of executive session to a private citizen, the allegation came from the citizen herself... Lisa Shearin publicly alleged City Administrator Keith Whitfield called her to advise that the upcoming executive session was regarding her.

Is that not a TOMA violation?

Additionally, Italy EDC President, Charles Hyles, made an interesting comment only after I was forced to leave the room, about how I "don't pay taxes in this [inaudible; stops himself]."

Refer to timestamp 57:48 for his comment.

That is a really odd comment to make, especially considering he knows Italy sales tax revenue funds the EDC he has been a President over for nearly 15 years. The Italy EDC gets 25% of all sales tax revenue collected by the city. For January, that number was $17,568 cash into the EDC's bank account.

EDC President Charles Hyles, I'm sorry to inform you, but anyone paying sales tax in Italy is an Italy taxpayer. I'll make it really easy for you since you don't seem to understand this concept.

If you go to Mansell's and you buy yourself a drink, and Mansell's collects sales tax, you are now an Italy taxpayer.

If you own a business in Italy, and if you collect sales tax for Italy, your customers are all Italy taxpayers.

I would hope our EDC President would understand this. It is certainly quite an interesting comment to make and for him to focus on, especially when the Italy EDC has "special provisions" that allow people that don't even live within the Italy city limits to dictate what 25% of their sales tax revenue goes towards, and considering the fact your EDC President doesn't even live within the city limits himself.

I guess in Italy, we get to pick and choose who's opinion from outside the city limits gets to matter... More discrimination? Maybe, but I digress once again...

That's a lot of money we could be using to fix roads and infrastructure... Instead, it gets sent to the EDC for... I'm not sure? They rarely even meet, and the one time they do call a meeting, they call it during a severe freezing weather period that everyone knew about a week in advance.

I, on behalf of ITXN, have proposed multiple projects to the Italy EDC and they have never responded to us. Projects that would've helped promote economic development and growth in Italy. Flat out ignored. "We'll consider it" and then I never hear from them again.

One of our proposals was a visitor center and community civic education center. I presented Charles and the EDC with an entire strategic plan including a funding plan that would not require the EDC to cover everything. We were only asking for a little help...

Ignored.

If the Italy EDC is refusing business project proposals from the public, what exactly is their purpose? To buy random pieces of land to sit on them with no apparent purpose? I still think it's odd they own land in a flood plain adjacent to the baseball fields for a few years now and they have not done anything with it at all. How is that "economic development," and why do they get to use 25% of Italy's sales tax revenue for such purposes?

I have reached out to EDC President Charles Hyles with these questions alongside others that I feel are true matters of public concern. The EDC controls a lot of Italy taxpayer money. If the city is nearly broke, which it is, its important to ensure our EDC is doing its due diligence considering they control 25% of the city's sales tax revenue.

This is part of my article which will summarize my argument in support of holding a special election to adjust the EDC payment amounts so that the city can better balance its near negative budget. Since the EDC is funded by sales tax, the council cannot pass a resolution to adjust the payments. It must come from a special election decided by the voters.

The city is is staring down the nose of critical infrastructure projects. All I hear is tens of thousands of more dollars getting spent on repairs, projects ongoing for three years that are failing to pass compliance, and seemingly no one voting on expenditures with the realism of the near-negative budget in mind. All I hear are "guess we have to" and I don't hear anything about creative solutions to dig us out of this mess... aside from apparently the City Administrator and City Secretary paying themselves $15,000 to do your city budget... but I digress again, sorry...

My creative solution that the city can do RIGHT NOW, is to repurpose clearly ineffective EDC payments so that the city can claw its way back into a healthy, net positive operating budget, where we can afford to give all of our officers and employees raises and not just city and police administrative staff.

What's your creative plan for Italy that will actually drastically change the direction of your city for the better? Until you propose a better one, you should really consider advocating to your city about this one.

Who wouldn't want $20,000/month back in their pockets to be used for roads and infrastructure?

Your move, Italy.

P.S. This is not the announcement I referred to yesterday. I am still making some preparations, so that announcement has been moved to this weekend. I will be attending the Seven Points council meeting tomorrow, and then we will make one final post this weekend summarizing everything.

Ron Helms
President, ITXN
Italy Texas News & Transparency Foundation

02/11/2026

Italy City Council - February 9, 2026

If you want to hear the rest of the meeting, you will have to take the Mayor's advice and contact the city about their own recording. They didn't respond to our records request before we had to upload this video.

It is now Wednesday, the council signup deadline is Friday, and taxpayers that weren't present in the meeting still don't have access to everything that happened after the city removed me and my camera from the room. We record these meetings for you, not for us. I'm sorry we couldn't deliver the full meeting.

I hope one day for the Italy City Council to love their city more than they hate me.

We will have an important announcement tomorrow. Thank you to everyone that has supported us.

Ron Helms
President, ITXN
Italy Texas News & Transparency Foundation.

02/11/2026

Well, it is now beyond city business hours, and we have still not received a response to our records request for the council meeting audio. I guess I will go ahead and upload what I have. It won't be the full meeting, but it will be better audio than the stream. I'll work on that sometime tonight.

Here are the agenda requests I submit to the council last night. They ignored these as well. I'm not surprised, just disappointed.

I am told the city attorney had some interesting comments about how your Mayor and City Administrator handle agenda requests from your own council. We'll be able to hear it once your city finally releases the audio. I didn't get to hear it myself because they removed me from the meeting under threat of arrest.

02/10/2026

02/10/2026

Since I was removed from City Hall (again), I was not able to record the full meeting.

We have sent an urgent Public Information Request to the City of Italy to obtain the city's own recorded audio for the meeting. Our intent is to piece together the video we did get alongside the city's own audio. This will allow concerned taxpayers to at least hear the full meeting even though you will not get to see it this time.

We labeled this request as urgent, cited the upcoming election, and specifically requested them NOT to send this to Messer Fort as a stall tactic.

It takes just a few minutes to copy the audio from the city files and send it to our email. If the city can freely browse bodycam files, they can send us this audio the same day we request it.

We publicly call for Mayor Clinton Sulak-Tovar to ensure this records request is responded to timely, so that we have time to splice the content together and upload the video in advance of the upcoming election filing deadline on February 13.

How will people be able to judge if they should run for council if they cannot even see the latest meeting?

We request all concerned Italy taxpayers to call Italy City Hall to professionally and politely ask that they respond to our records request urgently.

See attached image.

02/10/2026

Since the city continues to fail to keep people informed, friendly reminder that signups for council close on Friday. If you’re thinking about running and you have not submit your packet, you’re running out of time.

02/09/2026

Italy City Council.

02/05/2026

This will have a huge impact on Italy

https://www.waxahachiesun.com/news/city-council-approves-largest-ever-development-in-3-2-vote/article_312f5dcd-a6b6-4187-b213-0c4d4c27eb67.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawPxWQ5leHRuA2FlbQIxMABicmlkETF2TWRVWG0xOFBublBOcnYzc3J0YwZhcHBfaWQQMjIyMDM5MTc4ODIwMDg5MgABHuPLVdLmFlpM4GuQF1FHlYbiJtqj5WCNsmYflr0DSgduEXzI17RY_mA5y0YJ_aem_rLF08Uc8S4z36-LV-zUe_A

After nine months of planning and deliberation, the Waxahachie City Council has approved the largest development in its history – a master-planned community that could eventually increase Waxahachie’s population by

02/04/2026

Rain or snow, cold or heat, they deliver without missing a beat 💌 Today is National Thank A Mail Carrier Day, a day to express extra gratitude for the mail carriers who go the extra mile to serve our communities with care 🌟 Don't forget to say "thank you" to the carriers on their routes today 🙌